THE PRICE OF BREAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 210, 8 September 1904, Page 2

THE PRICE OF BREAD.

♦ BRITAIN:; SOVRCIC OK SUPPLY. (Received September 7,10.35 p.m.) LONDON, September 7. Replying to a correspondent regarding the advance in the price of bread Mr Chamberlain states that these advances ai« independent of taxation. •' The cost of tiread," he says, " depends wholly un Uie state of supply and demand. If we continue to leave ourselves in the hands of u monopoly we must expect rises. The remedy consists in opening new souices of supply by preferential arrangements with the colonies."

AN APPEAL TO THE AGRICULTURIST. In his groat speech at Wcllieck, on August 4th, the Daily Mail says, delivered to on audience of 12,000 souls, Mr Chamberlain concerned himself mainly with the effect of tariff reform upon the farmer and agricultural labourer. It is n 0 secret that tlio free trader are concentrating thoir attention upon Uie rural constituencies, uecuuse it is difficult to demonstrate to the rural mind the immediate advantages which tariff reform must bring, and because in the country men are Denature conservative, as they cling to the belief of past generations in free trado with a pathetic constancy, long after the ivst of the world has liscarded that outworn creed.

As a matter of (act it is not difficult to stow that the labourer will gain ultimately, owl gain greatly, by any fiscal system which grants fair play to British agriculture. The number of persona employed upon the land has rapidly diminished, a» Mr Chamberlain pointed o ut, sinco the fall in the cost of transport so in croasod the intensity of foreign competition. The census figures show that where 1,904,000 persons were employed in agriculture in 1851, in 1901 there were only 988,000. The decline has thus ibcen something like 50 per cent., and it will certainly continue in the near future, till it menaces the position ol every laIwirer.

As one result the worker has been driven from the ample space and fresh air of the country to the towns where ho finds himself pent up in squalid slums, superannuated at forty, with no friends in tho hour of misfortune, and with nothing but higher wages—out of which, Itowever, he lias to pay a far higher romt—<and the rush and excitement ol town life in exchange. As matters stand the gain ia small, while In the near futuro tho labourer will have to face this dismal fact-that owing to the damage inflicted upon British manufacturers by Uie ever-growing foreign competition, thero may he no demand for his labour, oven in the towns. Mr Chamberlain's final appeal was to the patriotism and spirit of devotion in the Englishman. Surely tho solf-suflicimt Empire is an ideal worthy of great sacrifice, ajid no British citizen should stop to argue about the halfpenny or farthing a week which "ho may possdibly lose under Mr Chamberlain's proposals. At tho worst tho loss will be insignificant ; at tho best the gain will bo enonnous.